The Emptiness
by AlisonWonderland51
Summary: When Commander Peepers is forced to leave the Watchdog army, Lord Hater has a hard time learning to get along without his second-in-command.
1. The Meeting

"_But sir!_" Commander Peepers shouted pitifully at his stubborn boss. "What do you _mean _the entire quarter's budget has already been spent?!"

"I did not say the _entire _budget," Lord Hater replied. "I just said _most _of the budget. We have about 4.50 left, maybe."

"B-But sir! You promised you'd buy us new uniforms," Commander Peepers reminded him.

"Hey, yeah, you did say that!" shouted a little Watchdog private from the crowd behind them. Lord Hater quickly made sure to _zap _the little private.

"Well, Peepers, plans have _changed!_" Lord Hater emphasized. "Your current uniforms are just fine, anyway! Besides, I needed that money for my new giant battle robot."

"Sir, you've got _a million_ giant battle robots already!" Peepers reminded him.

"Ah! But I don't have a million _and one _giant battle robots! Do you see how this is maybe different?"

"Sir, I just think that…"

"I don't _care_ what you think, commander! I'll spend my money on whatever I want!"

Commander Peepers just sighed in defeat. This wasn't the first time he was unfairly shot down by his tyrannical boss. It seemed that every time Lord Hater made some sort of promise to him, it was immediately broken. He figured that this shouldn't come to him as much of a surprise. He did actively sign up to work for a guy named Lord _Hater_, the unfair evilness was sort of implied. But still, it was beginning to grow tiresome. "Yes, sir, of course, sir…" Maybe next quarter?"

"Of course, Commander Peepers, of course," Lord Hater said, not exactly sounding sincere. Peepers could sense that Hater was most likely insultingly patronizing him. Normally he would keep his pupil shut about this in the interest of his own safety, but Lord Hater had broken too many promises and had rejected him too many times! He was putting has foot down this time.

"Sir!" Peepers said, projecting his voice, warranting Lord Hater's attention. "With all due respect, I just have to say that if you don't deliver on those uniforms next quarter, I'm..."

"You're _what?_" asked Lord Hater, intently curious. "What are you going to do, Peepers? Quit or something? You know you're not allowed to leave unless you've been properly discharged."

"I'm…" I'm going to start a protest!" Peepers proudly, but unsurely proclaimed. "And I'll get others to join me!" An audible gasp then came from the crowd of Watchdogs.

"Commander Peepers, sir," a Watchdog in the front whispered to his superior. "Surely you don't mean that!"

"I _do _mean that!" Peepers yelled loud enough to hopefully get his point across. Lord Hater, surprisingly inexpressive, just stared at the commander. He could see the hesitance in his eye, but could tell he was very serious. "Lord Hater, sir," Peepers continued, more calmly. "When I joined this army, I respected you as my leader, and I still _do_, which is why I am so disappointed in you! You made a promise to my troops and to me, your _excellent_ commander, and I expected you to keep it! And if you _continue _to refuse to give us what we need, then I will refuse to keep on supporting you! No more taking your tripe for me actually _doing _my job, no more chasing after Wander and Sylvia, and certainly no more _coddling _you when you make a stupid mistake. Understand, sir?" Peepers crossed his arms, stood up straight, and was feeling very proud of himself for actually standing up to Lord Hater for once. Surely, he got through to him.

Lord Hater stood silent for a moment, and took a deep breath. He took a few steps closer to Peepers, and placidly explained to him, "Commander Peepers, you're **fired**."

The entire room went _dead _silent. Every Watchdog in the room just froze in place. Poor Peepers had no idea how to react. His heart seemed to have skipped a beat there. He couldn't believe he had heard what he thought he had heard. Lord Hater _had _to have been joking. "F-... Fired?" Peepers meekly squeaked.

Lord Hater slowly nodded. "Peepers, I hereby discharged you from your position as the commander of the Watchdog Army of the Hater Empire. Turn in your blaster and your uniform and _get out._" Lord Hater had such professional sounding monotonous tone about his voice, that there was no mistaking this for some kind of joke. The Watchdogs kept glancing back and forth at Lord Hater and their commander. From the quiver in Peepers' eye, they were almost sure he was about to cry.

"W-Well..." Fine!" Peepers shouted, much to the Watchdogs and Lord Hater' surprise. Lord Hater was expecting begging, groveling, and profuse apologies. "I don't want to work for someone who mistreats and disrespects his hardworking troops anyway! Only _I'm_ allowed to do that! I don't need _you!_" Peepers took off his helmet and threw it forcefully to the ground. Shooting Lord Hater a livid glare before stomping down off the stage and marching through the break in the crowd of Watchdogs. Lord Hater staring at him with the same stoic look the entire time.

The crowd of Watchdogs all turned and looked at Lord Hater, the looks in their eyes just begged to know how he could possibly do something like that to his most loyal soldier. "What are _you _looking at?! Hater screamed at his now commander-less troops. "Meeting dismissed!"


	2. The Departure

Chapter 2 - The Departure

"GET OUT!" Lord Hater roared at Peepers.

"_I'm gettin' out!_" Peepers screeched back. He had turned in his uniform (well, more threw it in Lord Hater's face), and his standard-issue blaster, and was making his way to the docking bay. He had packed up pretty much his whole life into a little suitcase, and put on normal street-clothes, something his soldiers had never seen him in before. He was headed to his personal ship to finally leave, while Hater was badgering him to get out already all the way there.

"Well, _good!_" Lord Hater snapped at him.

"Yeah! Good that I won't have put up with _you _anymore! I'm going to boycott your pitiful little operation here and I will make people know the _injustice _that goes on!"

"Pffft, good luck with _that, _shorty! Now GO!"

"_I'M GOING!_" And with that Ex-Commander Peepers slammed the door of his ship and was off.

Lord Hater let out a frustrated sigh. He turned to any and all Watchdogs that may have been observing the drama from the hallway, and shouted at them, "Alright! Show's over! It's 9 o'clock! And that means lights out for you all!"

"But, sir, it's only 7pm," one private noted.

"I said hit the the hay!" Lord Hater pointed in the direction of their bunk-room.

"Yes, sir!" All the Watchdogs saluted in unison and ran to the bunks without further question. Lord Hater trudged down the hall, and grumpily made his way to his own room.

He plopped down on his bed, grabbed the remote to his stereo. He started blasting the "deepest" heavy metal band he could think of, 'KOMPOUND FRÄKTURE', in the hopes of making himself feel better. Following this up by burying his face is a pillow, he was ready to begin his brooding. That is, until a tiny knock came at the door. Lord Hater didn't hear it at first, but it got louder and louder and harder to ignore. "Augh! Go away! I'm busy!" Lord Hater barked.

"Sir, I just wanted to ask you a question!" the little Watchdog on the other side of the door said. "Normally I would ask Commander Peepers, but, y'know, I can't exactly do that anymore."

"UGH..." Lord Hater groaned. "GO AWAY! I said 'lights out', remember?!"

"Oh, uh, yes... sir. Are you okay in there?"

"I'm _fine! _Jeez! Go away!" And with that, the little Watchdog left Lord Hater alone to mope.

Lord Hater rolled off his bed and went over to the mini-fridge he had in the corner of his room. He wanted to get as much sugar in him as possible to help heal the pain. He plopped back down on the bed, and turned his stereo up. "You understand my pain, Kompound Fräkture..." Lord Hater cried as he shoved a spoonful of mint chocolate chip ice cream in his mouth. The moping and death metal continued into the night, trying to heal the obvious emotional scars Peepers yelling at him had left. He just couldn't believe Peepers would even talk to him like that! Yes, he knew the Watchdogs needed new uniforms, as their current ones were rather worn and frayed, but he _needed _that awesome battle robot _more_. How could Peepers not understand that?

By morning, Lord Hater had gone through every album he owned, and every carton of ice cream in the ship's fridge. At 2:30 in the afternoon, Hater finally woke up and was ready to get started with his first day of evil-doing without Peepers in a very long time. Take over planets, work on his torture megamix, all that good stuff. He would have no problem without the commander, surely.

He made his way to the large meeting room, where the hoards of Watchdogs he had called there awaited his orders. Hater walked up on the platform in the front of the room and turned to his troops. "Watchdogs!" he exclaimed. His soldiers all saluted, practically in perfect synchronization. "Are you ready to carry out my nefarious plans for today?!" The crowd shouted out an excited collective "YES!"

Though one Watchdog up front just had to inquire, "Um, excuse me, Lord Hater, sir! What exactly _is _the plan for today?" All eyes turned to Hater, as the other Watchdogs had realized that they _didn't _know what nefarious plans Hater was referring to.

"W-What?" Hater was confused. "You all always seem to know what I'm talking about every other day."

"Well, sir..." another Watchdog nervously began to explain. "That's because normally before you wake up, Commander Peepers explains our plans for the day. And, uh, obviously that didn't happen today."

"Oh, seriously?" Lord Hater asked. He crossed his arms and thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, Peepers is normally the one who laid out our plans, too." Commander Peepers had organized so many of Lord Hater's plans, that Hater didn't even notice anymore. He didn't think for a second that _he _would have to do it that day, it just seemed to happen automatically at this point. "I don't _get it!_"

"Well, you _did _fire the commander, sir," a Watchdog reminded him.

"Yes, but he's always come back before!" Lord Hater explained. "Well... Well, what do we normally do?"

"Uh, well," a Watchdog replied. "Normally Commander Peepers tells us what's going on, you wake up, make some 'We're going to conquer this planet' speech based on the commander's plan and then we go do that. _Or _you make some 'We're going to capture Wander and Sylvia' speech and send Commander Peepers out to capture Wander and Sylvia."

Lord Hater never realized how day-to-day this all was. He gave an irritated sigh. "Well, we can't do _that_." He stood in silence for a moment, trying to think of something to do, as the rows and rows of Watchdogs stared at him, waiting for him to give them something to do.

"This is just _sad_," Hater heard a Watchdog say. He promptly zapped the little complainer.

"So, uh, any old business?" Hater asked. The crowd of Watchdogs looked at each other before turning back to Hater and shaking their heads. "Okay, uh, any new business?"

"We still need new uniforms!" a Watchdog in the back shouted.

"_I KNOW!_" Lord Hater frustratedly screamed to the back of the room as he also quickly electrocuted the other complaining Watchdog. "So, uh, anything new, like, _at all? _Anyone's birthday? Anyone's kid graduate kindergarten?" There was a gaping void of silence until Lord Hater just sighed and said, "Forget it, just _go. _Until further notice you have the day off."

"WHOO!" the Watchdogs all cheered as Lord Hater stormed off stage. This was going to be a rough day, he could tell.


	3. The Attack

Chapter 3 - The Attack

Lord Hater was sitting, bored out of his mind, in the ship's control room. He had gotten a couple Watchdogs to go to the nearest inhabited planet to get him a few more cartons of ice cream to cry into. They brought them back to Hater and then he practically inhaled them, they were gone so fast. The Watchdogs were not happy. After his sugar binge, Hater was bored again, and just went back to staring at the ceiling of the control room. He started to thinking about what Peepers had said to him, and how maybe he should have considered his words. Hater was beginning to come to the realization that maybe it wasn't right for him to fire his commander, and that maybe he was just being a jerk.

Unfortunately, that didn't quite go through, because in the midst of Lord Hater's thoughts, the ship was violently and suddenly bashed from the side. It almost sent Lord Hater flying out of his chair. Hater sprung up and reached for the intercom microphone, "_PEEPERS!_" he screamed his ex-commander's name, purely from force of habit. "Oh, uh, I mean, some..." Watchdog! I don't care which! Report to the control room immediately!" Soon enough, a Watchdog private hurried in and saluted his leader. "Mind telling exactly what _that _was?" Hater asked, referring to the sudden ramming on the ship.

"I'll tell you, sir, but you might not like the answer," the Watchdog private told Hater.

"I said I wanted to know! Just tell me!" Hater bellowed. "I never had this problem with Peepers," he mumbled to himself.

"Well, sir, it's..." It's the Party Boat," the private told his boss.

"The Party..."? _UGH!_ Of all the days for Emperor Awesome to..." I swear!" Lord Hater ran up to the control panel. Out the window, he saw Emperor Awesome's ship, known as the 'Party Boat', had fly into view. There was a voice starting to fizzle in through the two-way communicator.

"Hatey!" the voice coming through the communicator playfully said.

Hater growled upon hearing the annoyingly familiar voice. "And what do you want, you weirdo stretch pants-wearing fish man?!"

"What's wrong, bro? Can't an old buddy pop in to see his best pal?" Emperor Awesome asked, smiling through his dagger-like teeth. He flew just close enough so they could see each other from the windows of their ships. He saw his "pal", Hater, but he noticed that a certain someone was conspicuously missing. "Yo, Hater! Where's that little eyeball dude with the giant helmet that's always standing next to you? What's his name? Captain Peppers, right?"

"That has nothing to do with this!" Lord Hater shouted. "Now I suggest you get out of here before you get a face full of _lasers!_"

"What's the matter, Hatey?" Emperor Awesome asked, sounding a bit patronizing. "Can't a guy just stop over to see his _best_ friend?"

"_We are not friends!_" Lord Hater screamed over the communicator. "That's it!" Lord Hater then slammed his fists down on the buttons that activated the laser cannons at the front of the ship. They charged up and soon enough, they fired! ...Unfortunately, they didn't hit anything, as Awesome's Party Boat was right between where each cannon was aimed. Emperor Awesome burst into laughter, followed by his Fist Fighters laughing equally as hard at Hater's phenomenal failure, laughing which was very _clearly_ heard by Lord Hater over the two-way communicator. "Ugh, how do you aim these stupid things?" Hater mumbled to himself in frustration, looking over the control panel. He pushed some buttons, pulled some levers, but couldn't seem to find the right combination of controls to point the laser cannons where he wanted them to go.

Emperor Awesome seized the opportunity and called out to his Fist Fighters, "Alright, bros! Listen up! Hatey's defenseless right now! You guys know what to do!" His soldiers saluted their shark-man leader and were ready to get to work.

Lord Hater, for the life of him, could not figure out how to aim the cannons straight. "Give me a minute!" he shouted at Awesome through the communicator. "They're just malfunctioning! It's not that I don't know how to work the laser cannons!" He turned off the communicator, and asked the Watchdog with him, "You know how to work the laser cannons?" The Watchdog shook his head. Hater proceeded to grab the mic to the ship's intercom, "_Does anyone know how to work the laser cannons?!_"

Suddenly, another Watchdog soldier sprinted into the room. "Sir! We have a problem!" he anxiously shouted.

"Of course we have problem!" Lord Hater retorted. "I completely forgot how to aim these stupid cannons! Normally, I just fire them. Where's the Watchdog who knows how to use these dumb things?!"

"You fired him, remember sir?" the other Watchdog reminded him. Lord Hater glared at the little soldier, and zapped him with 100 volts of green lightning without hesitation, just strong enough to knock him completely out.

"No! Sir! We have bigger problem!" the Watchdog explained to his Lord Hater. "Just look at what Emperor Awesome's troops are doing to the outside of the ship!"

"What?! What are they doing?!" Lord Hater switched on a monitor in the room, and hit a few buttons. But nothing came up on it but static. "Ugh! Stupid thing!" he hit a few more buttons, getting flipping through a few of the livefeeds from the security cameras' strewed about the ship. "No, no, no..."" Hater said to himself, going through all the security camera feeds, the one thing he couldn't seem to get was one of the cameras on the _outside _of the ship. "Come on, you stupid thing! I need the camera on rocket number 9!"

"Didn't Commander Peepers normally handle all the security camera things?" the little Watchdog (the one that was still conscious) asked, curiously. Lord Hater shot him look that immediately silenced him. Finally, Lord Hater got the feed for the outside camera.

"_WHAT?!"_ Lord Hater screamed in rage as soon as he saw what the Fist Fighters had done to his ship. "How _dare _they disgrace my beautifully evil ship like this?!" Everywhere the camera pointed there was some Fist Fighter soldier spray painting the hull of the ship. Painting their army's logo everywhere, writing 'Fist Fighters Rule, Watchdogs Drool' in various places, the thing was a mess. Hater wouldn't have considered it _so_ bad if they hadn't written '3MPEROR 4WESOM3 FTW" right on the front of the ship. "Why didn't you morons _do _anything to _stop them?!_" Hater shouted at the Watchdog with him.

"We didn't want to do anything without direct orders!" the Watchdog said in his defense. "We had no one giving us any orders!"

"Why didn't Peepers..." Oh, that's right, that's right..." Lord Hater put his palm to his face and let out an extraordinarily aggravated sigh. "Just get those stupid little hand people out of here!"

"Yes, sir!" the Watchdog saluted. "But, uh, before I go, I need to know," he said, looking down at the unconscious Watchdog lying face down on the floor. "Is Private Curtison dead?"

"Oh, _grop_, I hope not," Lord Hater sighed. "J-Just go!"

Soon enough, the Watchdogs had successfully gotten all the Fist Fighters away from Hater's ship. Even if they did go away, the damage had been done, and the entirety of the vessel was covered top-to-bottom in absurdly detailed graffiti. Once all the Fist Fighters had retreated back to the Party Boat, they all received a much deserved high-five from their emperor. "Thanks for your cooperation, dude!" Emperor Awesome said to Lord Hater with a smirk. "Looks like your tree fort is falling apart with your little eye-bro, Captain Peppers, on vacation!"

Hater tried desperately to contain his anger (not that it was working). "We're just having an off day!" he shouted. "And his name is Commander Peepers! And he is not 'on vacation', I _fired_ him!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down!" Emperor Awesome stopped him. "You _fired _your little eyeball dude commander? You're kidding! What'd he do?"

"I bought a giant battle robot, and he got all _mad _because I _sort of_ promised to spend that money on new uniforms for the Watchdogs, but then pushed it back to next quarter. Again. But he should've understood and should have taken 'no' for an answer!"

"Hater, dude. Not cool. You always gotta take your troopers seriously!" Awesome told Hater as he fist-bumped one of his Fist Fighters. "You can't fire em' over stuff like that! These guys are your buddies, you gotta treat em' like it! They do a ton for you and you gotta do something for them sometimes too, y'know? Besides, pretty numbskull move firing that little Peepers dude, he seems like the only one who knew how anything on that ship of yours works!"

Hater growled. He walked back and plopped himself back into his chair, slumping down, not saying a word. Maybe what Awesome was saying was true, maybe he shouldn't have fired Peepers, maybe he should take the request of his soldiers more seriously, maybe he _should _learn how how his stupid ship works. "But, ya know, that's just my two cents!" Awesome added. "Also, I think that little eyeball dude on your floor might be dead, just sayin'. Thanks for your time, Hatey. See ya later, bro!" And with that, Emperor Awesome's Party Boat was off at the speed of light.

Lord Hater sighed and stared back out into the inky void of space. Any mistake he had made in the past 24 was all because of just one possible mistake he made. He snatched the intercom mic, "Can I get a clean-up crew for literally every inch of the hull?" Soon enough, a little clean-up crew of Watchdogs were outside, scrubbing away at the mess the Fist Fighters had made, starting with the 'Fister Fighters rule, Watchdogs drool' parts. "And could I please get someone to take Private Curtison to sick bay?!" He slammed down the intercom mic, and slumped ever farther into his chair, watching a Watchdog squeegee the window he was looking out of. He sighed and quietly asked himself, "What am I gonna do?"


	4. The Realization

Chapter 4 - The Realization

It had been hours since Emperor Awesome's "attack" on the ship. It was after lights-out for the Watchdogs, so the troops had all gone to sleep. They would have to continue scrubbing the ship's hull in the morning. Whatever spray paint those Fist Fighters used, it wasn't coming out for anything.

Lord Hater was still wide awake, walking through the dim halls of his vessel, deep in thought. Something about what Awesome had said about respecting one's troops oddly resonated with him. He kept repeating the words in his mind, even if he _did _want to disagree with them. The ship was silent completely silent, aside from the footsteps of his sneakers hitting the floor and the occasional sad sigh.

He walked passed what used to be Commander Peepers' personal living quarters. Hater remembered, no matter what time of night it was, if he walked passed Peepers' room, he could always hear the little Watchdog doing _something. _Whether it be vigorously typing at his computer or loudly talking to himself (or loudly talking to himself while loudly typing), the little commander never had a moment where he wasn't doing something. Lord Hater wasn't sure _when _exactly Peepers slept, but he always seemed full of energy while at work.

Hater thought about this. Commander Peepers was up all night, and was always so eager to be the one to capture Wander and Sylvia himself. He always stayed loyal to his evil overlord, at least until he was _fired_, that is. That got Lord Hater thinking that maybe, just maybe, Emperor Awesome was right. Maybe for all that little trooper put up with, he deserved his simple request of getting some new uniforms for his soldiers. Maybe Lord Hater didn't have to buy another giant battle robot. Perhaps it _was_ far too incredibly and painfully obvious that he didn't know how most of his ship worked. Working with the ship was always Peepers' department.

Lord Hater was just passing by the ship's docking bay, when out of the corner his eye, he saw a little ship fly in. Now how did that get in here at this hour? The entrances were locked, there was no way anyone could get in. Unless, of course, the person flying the ship knew the code to get inside. Come to think of it, that little ship _did_ look familiar. Hater walked further into the docking bay, and saw what looked like a little Watchdog in normal clothing hopped out. Now, what with all their heads just being eyeballs, it was a touch difficult telling Watchdogs apart. However, this one did look a bit shorter than average... And soon, he realized. "Peepers? That you?" he called out. The little Watchdog turned his head.

"Sir? What are you doing up?" the Watchdog said. Yup, it was Peepers alright. No one else had that nasally of a voice.

"Eh, couldn't sleep," Hater casually replied. "What are you doing back here, anyhow?"

"Oh, uh, sorry, sir." Really, Peepers didn't have to called him 'sir' anymore since he wasn't working for him any longer, but at this point it was just reflex "I accidently left my wallet in my room. I just came back to get it."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Hater said, surprisingly awkward. "B-But since you're not authorized to be on these premises any longer, I'll have to escort you there!"

Peepers rolled his eyes, but replied, "I suppose that's fair enough."

As Peepers made his way to his former living quarters, Lord Hater stayed directly behind him. Hater nervously rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to strike up a conversation. "So, uh, what have you been up to?"

"Hmm?" Peepers wasn't expecting Lord Hater to even _care_ about something like that. "Oh, well, I went back to my parents' house, they're going to let me move back in until I can find a new job and get a place to myself. They were... a _touch_ disappointed that I won't be serving in your army any longer, but they understand! So, uh, how's everything here, huh?"

"Here? Oh! Uh, good! Good. Real, uh, real good."

"So, all that graffiti from what was clearly Awesome's troops, you count that as 'good', huh?"

"Ah, grop, I forgot that was there..." Hater muttered to himself. "Well!" he spoke up. "That was just a minor thing. Our laser cannons malfunctioned is all."

"Oh, a shame you _fired _me, I would've had those fixed lickety-split." Peepers said that with only the slightest bit of intense unforgiving bitterness showing.

"Um... yeah," Hater replied, his eyes darting back and forth between the floor and Peepers. "But so, Emperor Awesome sort of came by. Yup. And, uh..." Hater just sort of trailed off.

At this point, Peepers was a little more than suspicious about how secretive Hater seemed to be. "That's all, huh? So, other than the attack on the ship that you were completely defenseless against, everything's going swimmingly, huh?"

"Oh, yeah! Yeah!" Lord Hater reiterated. "Because, y'know, this is my ship, I'm the leader, I can handle everything myself! I can command the Watchdogs myself, and handle Emperor Awesome, and catch Wander and Sylvia. They're just little menial jobs _anyone _could do! And even without you, I'll be perfectlyâ€" _Peepers, you have to come back!_" Lord Hater spun Peepers around, and dropped to his knees.

"Wait, _what?_" Peepers was a little more than confused. Hater's tone shifted so fast, it was like whiplash.

"Peepers, Peepers, I'm hiring you back! I'm sorry, okay?! Please!" Lord Hater had his hands clasps together, along with having the most pitiful look imaginable on his face. Peepers just stared at Hater, baffled for a moment, but soon gathered his thoughts and just gave Hater a sour look, not thinking he deserved the forgiveness he was trying to warrant. "Please, Peepers!" Hater took Peepers by the shoulders and shook him. "Just... I don't know what to tell the Watchdogs, and I didn't know how to organize plans, and how do security cameras even work?! I have no idea how you aim those stupid laser cannons, and I can't order the Watchdogs and argue with Awesome at the same time, and what does it mean when the little red light in the engine room goes off?! Is that, like, normal?! Or does it mean something's wrong?! This is why I need you back, buddy!" Hater put his arm around Peepers, and gave him a little one-armed hug while giving a fake smile, hoping to win Peepers back over.

Peepers gave Hater a nice, long, disgruntled stare before simply saying, "**No.**" He wasn't about to give in that easy.

"Oh, _come on! _What more do you want from me?! I apologized, okay?! Jeez! Without you, it just seems like everything is going wrong! All the ice cream is gone, and I have no one to cut out the coupons so I can get more! My CDs need to be alphabetized, but I don't feel like doing it, and Captain Tim wants something, but I don't know what it is!" Lord Hater made Peepers look him right in the face. "It hasn't been the same without you, pal. There's just so... _so many buttons! _And the Watchdogs cry themselves to sleep every night..."

"I've only been gone a day and a half."

"Okay, they cried themselves to sleep _once. _And I... I'm no different. I miss you, Peepers! Without your shrill, nasally voice echoing through the halls, and without seeing my favorite Watchdog in that commanding officer helmet, that is _clearly _compensating for your below-average height, I seriously don't know who you're trying to fool, but I digress, the ship's just seemed so _empty. _Sure, it's full of Watchdogs, scurrying around, going about their jobs. But without you, something just seems to be missing, you know?" Hater just started sobbing on Peepers' shoulder. Poor Peepers didn't exactly know what to make of it.

"Well... sir, I... I'm flattered that you and the Watchdogs miss me so much, b-butâ€"" Before Peepers could speak another word, Lord Hater's sobs became louder and more pitiful. He was practically bawling. "Sir, please don't cry..."

"I'm sorry, Peepers! Just please forgive me!" Hater cried in the most pathetic tone one could manage.

"Oh, sir!" Peepers gave his former boss a pity-hug and patted his back. "I-I'm sorry! This is all my fault! I should have come back sooner! I shouldn't have even argued with you in the first place! I'll come back! Just please don't cry, sir!"

Hater sniffled a little, and pulled back from Peepers. "You... You will?" Hater peeped.

"Yes, sir! I certainly will!" Peepers saluted his tyrannical overlord. "I'll get everything fixed up in a jiffy! Don't you worry, sir!"

"Oh, _thank you_, Peepers!" Hater said gleefully, hugging his second-in-command tightly. "And I promise you, I'll get your soldiers those new uniforms! This quarter, with my own money."

"Really?! Oh, thank you, sir!" Peepers sounded absolutely giddy. He was sure coming back wouldn't be a mistake, as Lord Hater had clearly learned from his own mistake. "Now, I'm off to go fix everything up! Things'll be back to normal in no time, you'll see!"

"Your helmet's in the supply closet!" Hater called out to Peepers as the little commander ran off to get his chores done.

Lord Hater was overjoyed to have his loyal right-hand man back. Never would he underestimate him again. Never again would he shun a serious request from him. He had realized how much he really needed him, and he would never ignore his needs or dignity ever again. Never ever again. Ever. Seriously

The very next day, Lord Hater had gathered all the troops into their main meeting room. "Watchdogs! I have a very special announcement to make," Lord Hater began. "Commander Peepers, who I so _rudely _fired not two days ago, has rejoined and has been given his old job back! Come on up here, commander!" Commander Peepers, back in full uniform, ran up on the stage and waved at his soldiers. All the Watchdogs in the crowd clapped and cheered (if only out of obligation)! "It's great to have you back, Peepers!" Hater told him.

"Well, it's pretty great to be back, Lord Hater, sir!" Peepers replied, giving the cheeriest smile (you know, the eyeball version of a smile). "Why don't you tell the troops about what you told me last night? About getting them some _new uniforms _this quarter? Hmm?"

"What?!" Hater angrily asked. "I never said that! Stop putting words in my mouth! Grop, you've had your job back for 13 hours now, and you already start with the complaining! Now stop yammering, and go catch me Wander and Sylvia!"

...

"Sir," Peepers calmly said with a sigh. "No offense, but _I hate you_."

The End!


End file.
